Students of God’s Word

Jeremiah 4:22 “For My people are foolish, they have not known Me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”

In chapter 4 the prophet Hosea brings out a charge that God has against His people. He says: “there is no truth or mercy (faithfulness) or knowledge of God in the land.” This is interesting when we consider what follows next as we go through this chapter when there is no truth or mercy, faithfulness, or knowledge of God. When these attributes are absent we see that it brings into our culture all types of evil.

Going through this chapter we see a number of things coming out such as swearing, lying, killing, stealing, adultery, bloodshed and how the land is mourning because of it. We find that the priest as well as the prophet have no real word (direct revelation) from God, and so not only the priest and prophet stumble but also the people. The bottom line is in verse six: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

We read that they have forgotten the law of God. When I think of our own culture of how there is such a desire to get rid of the Ten Commandments – the law of God – from any public institution we see the results of this today: there is no truth or mercy (faithfulness) at work in these public arenas. Or, like Isaiah said: “And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far away: for good faith is not to be seen in the public places, and upright behavior may not come into the town.” Isaiah 59:14 (BBE)

Because of this lack of knowledge we find that we tend to gravitate more towards idols (anything that replaces God) and therefore find ourselves more enslaved. In other words, we find that we are losing our freedom. When I look at my own country I find that this is a completely different country than what I knew as a young man.

Here in the USA and in the Western countries we hear a lot about this ‘cultural war’ that we are in. But what does this mean? It seems to come down to the conflict between a traditionalist with conservative values and progressives with liberal values. But when do we mean by “conservative values versus progressive values?” What values are these? Probably the best definition would be the values that express the attitude of social groups as a whole.

But both those who hold conservative values and those who hold progressive values, I believe, want the same thing and that is freedom, a chance for prosperity with as little suffering as possible, healthy children, crime free streets (think of Chicago!) etc., but the question is, and this is where the war or conflict comes in: What is the best way to achieve these things?

Progressives believe in the government to achieve these goals of equal opportunity, equal outcome, alleviating needs or social ills and for the government to solve these problems. On the contrary the conservatives believe in personal responsibility, a limited government, free markets and individual liberty and benevolence. I know that this is a very simple explanation for the difference in these two points of view, but this is where the cultural war comes in.

I would like to add that looking at this from a Scriptural background that the real battle is between God and Satan, or Good versus Evil. This scenario is being played out in what we call the cultural war and we are in it.

A charge that God had against the children of Israel was that they had no knowledge of God and like Jeremiah said: “For My people are foolish, they have not known Me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”

So how do we get a knowledge of God? It is through His Word and when we put it into practice we begin to experience the presence of God. In a day of deceit, lies, etc. we need the truth. But what is truth? Jesus said “I am the Truth!” But we also see in John that He is known as the Word. We have the Word of God, or Bible, in our hands, on our book shelf (where many have it just gathering dust). The Bible is the ultimate Truth, and our values and laws must be validated by the very Word of God.

Paul told a young man: “Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another — showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (from THE MESSAGE)